Can I Build an Expert System

The user of an ES needs to know little of what goes on behind the scenes. Provided that the system is robust, easy to use, and fully covers a suitable range of topics, the user need not worry about the form in which information is held in the ES or the type of reasoning on which it relies. 

However, if a potential need for an ES is identified and no such system currently exists, the answers to several questions will indicate whether it is feasible to construct a system. 

Clearly, no matter how valuable an ES might be, unless an expert can be found who combines an appropriate level of understanding with the time and motivation needed to create the system, no ES can be created. This is often the key challenge in preparing a new ES, since almost by definition there are few experts available in areas in which the ES is likely to be of the greatest value. 

Therefore, it is not always possible to construct an ES, even if experts exist and are willing to cooperate. There are also difficulties that arise if the correct answer to a question as determined by an expert is colored by personal preference or cultural views. An ES that could provide advice about classical and modern art might have many uses, but if it started passing comment on whether a sheep pickled in formaldehyde is good or bad art, it might antagonize users. Judging whether a dead sheep is beautiful, or whether it is art at all, is very much a matter of personal preference. 

Computers are well suited to the manipulation of numbers, but the ES relies on symbolic computation, in which symbols stand for properties, concepts, and relationships. The degree to which an ES can manage a task may depend on the complexity of the problem. For example, computer vision is an area of great interest within AI and many programs exist that can, without human assistance, use the output from a digital camera to extract information, such as the characters on a car number plate. However, automatic analysis of more complex images, such as a sample of soil viewed through a microscope, is far 

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